Many Christian denominations consider the interpretations and doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses to be heretical. Some religious leaders have accused Jehovah's Witnesses of being a cult. According to law professor Archibald Cox, in the United States, Jehovah's Witnesses were "the principal victims of religious persecution … they began to attract attention and provoke repression in the 1930s, when their proselytizing and numbers rapidly increased."[1]

During the World Wars, Jehovah's Witnesses were targeted in the United States, Canada, and many other countries for their refusal to serve in the military or help with war efforts. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps[2] along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent. Activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have previously been banned in the Soviet Union and in Spain, partly due to their refusal to perform military service. Their religious activities are currently banned or restricted in some countries, for example in Singapore, China, Vietnam, and many Islamic states.

According to the journal, Social Compass, "Viewed globally, this persecution has been so persistent and of such an intensity that it would not be inaccurate to regard Jehovah's witnesses as the most persecuted religion of the twentieth century".[3] The claim is disputed, as deaths resulting from persecution of Christians of other denominations during the twentieth century are estimated to number 26 million.[4]

In Bulgaria, Jehovah's Witnesses have been targets of violence by right wing nationalist groups such as the Bulgarian National Movement. On April 17, 2011, a group of about sixty hooded men carrying BMPO flags besieged a Kingdom Hall in Burgas, during the annual memorial of Christ's death. Attackers threw stones, damaged furniture, and injured at least five of the people gathered inside.[6][7] The incident was recorded by a local television station.[8] Jehovah's Witnesses in Bulgaria have been fined for proselytizing without proper government permits, and some municipalities have legislation prohibiting or restricting their rights to preach.[9]

During both world wars, Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted for abhorrence of patriotic exercises and conscientious objection to military service.[11]

In 1984, Canada released a number of previously classified documents which revealed that in the 1940s, "able bodied young Jehovah's Witnesses" were sent to "camps", and "entire families who practiced the religion were imprisoned."[2] The 1984 report stated, "Recently declassified wartime documents suggest [World War II] was also a time of officially sanctioned religious bigotry, political intolerance and the suppression of ideas. The federal government described Jehovah's Witnesses as subversive and offensive 'religious zealots' … in secret reports given to special parliamentarian committees in 1942." It concluded that, "probably no other organization is so offensive in its methods, working as it does under the guise of Christianity. The documents prepared by the justice department were presented to a special House of Commons committee by the government of William Lyon MacKenzie King in an attempt to justify the outlawing of the organizations during the second world war."[12]

In Eritrea, the government stripped Jehovah's Witnesses of their civil and political rights in 1994 after their refusal to engage in voting and military service.[13][14][15] Members of all ages have been arrested for participating in religious meetings.[16][17] Paulos Eyassu, Negede Teklemariam, and Isaac Mogos were arrested without charges, and were not allowed a trial.[18][19] International rights groups are aware of the situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Eritrea[20] and have repeatedly called for Eritrean authorities to end the persecution.[21]

In the 1990s and 2000s, the French government included Jehovah's Witnesses on its list of "cults", and governmental ministers made derogatory public statements about Jehovah's Witnesses.[26] Despite its century of activity in the country, France's Ministry of Finance opposed official recognition of the religion; it was not until June 23, 2000 that France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses qualify as a religion under French law.[27] France's Ministry of the Interior sought to collect 60% of donations made to the religion's entities; Witnesses called the taxation "confiscatory" and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.[28][29] On June 30, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that France’s actions violated the religious freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses by demanding 58 million euros in taxes.[30]

Jehovah's Witnesses in France have reported hundreds of criminal attacks against their adherents and places of worship.[31]

During the ban of the The Watchtower in France, publication of the magazine continued in various French territories. In French Polynesia, the magazine was covertly published under the name, La Sentinelle, though it was later learned that The Watchtower had not been banned locally.[32] In Réunion, the magazine was published under the name, Bulletin intérieur.[33]

In 1996, one year after Georgia adopted its post-USSRConstitution,[34] the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs began a campaign to detain tons of religious literature belonging to Jehovah's Witnesses.[35][36] Government officials refused permits for Jehovah's Witnesses to organize assemblies, and law enforcement officials dispersed legal assemblies. In September 2000, "Georgian police and security officials fired blank anti-tank shells and used force to disperse an outdoor gathering of some 700 Jehovah's Witnesses in the town of Natuliki in northwestern Georgia on 8 September, AP and Caucasus Press reported." [37]

In cases when the instigators were formally charged, prosecution was impeded by a lack of cooperation by government and law enforcement.[38] In 2004, Forum 18 News Service referred to the period since 1999 as a "five-year reign of terror" against Jehovah's Witnesses and certain other religious minorities.[39]Amnesty International noted: "Jehovah's Witnesses have frequently been a target for violence … in Georgia … In many of the incidents police are said to have failed to protect the believers, or even to have participated in physical and verbal abuse." [40] Individual Witnesses have fled Georgia seeking religious refugee status in other nations.[41]

On May 3, 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the government of Georgia for its toleration of religious violence toward Jehovah's Witnesses and ordered the victims be compensated for moral damages and legal costs.[42][43][44]

During 1931 and 1932, more than 2000 legal actions were instigated against Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany and members of the religion were dismissed from employment.[45] Persecution intensified following Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor in 1933 and continued until 1945.[46] A "Declaration of Facts" was issued at a Jehovah's Witness convention in Berlin on June 25, 1933, asserting the religion's political neutrality and calling for an end to government opposition. More than 2.1 million copies of the statement were distributed throughout Germany,[47] but its distribution prompted a new wave of persecution against German Witnesses, whose refusal to give the Hitler salute, join Nazi organizations or perform military service demonstrated their opposition to the nationalist and totalitarian ideologies of National Socialism.[48]

On October 4, 1934, congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany sent telegrams of protest and warning to Hitler. According to one eyewitness account Hitler was shown a number of telegrams protesting against the Third Reich's persecution of the Bible Students. The eyewitness, Karl Wittig, reported: "Hitler jumped to his feet and with clenched fists hysterically screamed: 'This brood will be exterminated in Germany!' Four years after this discussion I was able, by my own observations, to convince myself … that Hitler's outburst of anger was not just an idle threat. No other group of prisoners of the named concentration-camps was exposed to the sadism of the SS-soldiery in such a fashion as the Bible Students were. It was a sadism marked by an unending chain of physical and mental tortures, the likes of which no language in the world can express."[49][50]

About 10,000 Witnesses were imprisoned, including 2000 sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles; as many as 1200 died, including 250 who were executed.[51][52] From 1935 Gestapo officers offered members a document to sign indicating renouncement of their faith, submission to state authority, and support of the German military. Historian Detlef Garbe says a "relatively high number" of people signed the statement before the war, but "extremely low numbers" of Bible Student prisoners did so in concentration camps in later years.[53]

Despite more than a century of conspicuous activity in the country, Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were not granted legal recognition until March 25, 2005, in Berlin;[54] in 2006 Germany's Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) in Leipzig extended the local decision to apply nationwide.[55]

Jehovah's Witnesses' Office of Public Information has documented a number of mob attacks in India. It states that these instances of violence "reveal the country's hostility toward its own citizens who are Christians."[56][not in citation given] There have been reports that police assist mob attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses or lay charges against the Witnesses while failing to charge other participants in involved.[57] In the city of Davangere on December 20, 2010 a mob confronted two female Witnesses. The mob broke into the home of one of the Witnesses where they had taken refuge. Property was damaged and one of the Witnesses was assaulted. When the police arrived, the Witnesses were arrested and charged with blasphemy.[58]

In another incident, on December 6, 2011, three Witnesses were attacked by a mob in Madikeri, in the state of Karnataka. The male Witness "was kicked and pummeled by the mob" and then the mob dragged them towards a nearby temple; while making lewd remarks, the mob "tried to tear the clothes off of the female Witnesses." According to the report, the police came and "took the three Witnesses to the police station and filed charges against them rather than the mob."[59][not in citation given] During a July 2012 incident, a group of fifteen men assaulted four Witnesses in Madikeri. The group was taken to a police station and charged with "insulting the religion or religious beliefs of another class" before being released on bail.[60]

In 1967, thousands of Witnesses in Malawi were beaten by police and citizens for refusing to purchase political party cards and become members of the Malawi Congress Party.[61] While their stand of not involving themselves in politics during the time of the old Colonial government was seen as an act of resistance their continued non-involvement with the new independent government was viewed as treasonous.[62] The organization was declared illegal in the penal code and the foreign members in the country were expelled. Persecution, both economic and physical, was intensified after a September 1972 Malawi Congress Party meeting which stated, in part, that "all Witnesses should be dismissed from their employment; any firm that failed to comply would have its license cancelled." By November 1973 some 21,000 Jehovah's Witness had fled to the neighboring country of Zambia.[63][64] In 1993, during the transition to a multiparty system and a change in leadership, the government's ban on the organization was lifted in the country.[65][66][67]

In 1972 the Singapore government de-registered and banned the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses on the grounds that its members refuse to perform military service (which is obligatory for all male citizens), salute the flag, or swear oaths of allegiance to the state.[68][69] Singapore has banned all written materials (including Bibles) published by the International Bible Students Association and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, both publishing arms of the Jehovah's Witnesses. A person in possession of banned literature can be fined up to S$2,000 (US$1,333) and jailed up to 12 months for a first conviction.[70]

In February 1995, Singapore police raided private homes where group members were holding religious meetings, in an operation codenamed "Operation Hope". Officers seized Bibles, religious literature, documents and computers, and eventually brought charges against 69 Jehovah's Witnesses, many of whom went to jail.[71][72] In March 1995, 74-year-old Yu Nguk Ding was arrested for carrying two "undesirable publications"—one of them a Bible printed by the Watch Tower Society.[73]

In 1996, eighteen Jehovah's Witnesses were convicted for unlawfully meeting in a Singapore apartment and were given sentences from one to four weeks in jail.[74]Canadian Queen's Counsel Glen How flew to Singapore to defend the Jehovah's Witnesses and argued that the restrictions against the Jehovah's Witnesses violated their constitutional rights. Then-Chief Justice Yong Pung How questioned How's sanity, accused him of "living in a cartoon world" and referred to "funny, cranky religious groups" before denying the appeal.[71] In 1998, two Jehovah's Witnesses were charged in a Singapore court for possessing and distributing banned religious publications.[75]

In 1998 a Jehovah's Witness lost a law suit against a government school for wrongful dismissal for refusing to sing the national anthem or salute the flag. In March 1999, the Court of Appeals denied his appeal.[68] In 2000, public secondary schools indefinitely suspended at least fifteen Jehovah's Witness students for refusing to sing the national anthem or participate in the flag ceremony.[76] In April 2001, one public school teacher, also a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, resigned after being threatened with dismissal for refusing to participate in singing the national anthem.[68]

Singapore authorities have seized Jehovah's Witnesses' literature on various occasions from individuals attempting to cross the Malaysia-Singapore border. In thirteen cases, authorities warned the Jehovah's Witnesses, but did not press charges.[76][77][78]

As of 2008, there were 23 members of Jehovah's Witnesses incarcerated in the armed forces detention barracks for refusal to carry out mandatory military service. The initial sentence for failure to comply is 15 months' imprisonment, with an additional 24 months for a second refusal. All of the Jehovah's Witnesses in detention were incarcerated for failing to perform their initial military obligations and expect to serve a total of 39 months.[78] Failure to perform annual military reserve duty, which is required of all those who have completed their initial 2-year obligation, results in a 40-day sentence, with a 12-month sentence after four refusals.[78][79] There is no alternative civilian service for Jehovah's Witnesses.

In 2008–2009, the Singapore government declined to make data available to the public concerning arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses.[80][81]

Jehovah's Witnesses did not have a significant presence in the Soviet Union prior to 1939 when the Soviet Union forcibly incorporated eastern Poland, Moldavia, and Lithuania, each of which had a Jehovah's Witness movement. Although never large in number (estimated by the KGB to be 20,000 in 1968), the Jehovah's Witnesses became one of the most persecuted religious groups in the Soviet Union during the post-World War II era.[82] Members were arrested or deported; some were put in Soviet concentration camps. Witnesses in Moldavian SSR were deported to Tomsk Oblast; members from other regions of the Soviet Union were deported to Irkutsk Oblast.[83] KGB officials, who were tasked with dissolving the Jehovah's Witness movement, were disturbed to discover that the Witnesses continued to practice their faith even within the labor camps.[84]

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov proposed the deportation of the Jehovah's Witnesses to Stalin in October 1950. A resolution was voted by the Council of Minister and an order was issued by the Ministry for State Security in March 1951. The Moldavian SSR passed a decree "on the confiscation and selling of the property of individuals banished from the territory of the Moldavian SSR", which included the Jehovah's Witnesses.[83]

Importation of Jehovah's Witnesses' literature into the Soviet Union was strictly forbidden, and Soviet Jehovah's Witnesses received their religious literature from Brooklyn illegally. Literature from Brooklyn arrived regularly, through well-organized unofficial channels, not only in many cities, but also in Siberia, and even in the penal camps of Potma.[citation needed] The Soviet government was so disturbed by the Jehovah's Witnesses that the KGB was authorized to send agents to infiltrate the Brooklyn headquarters.[87]

In September 1965, a decree of the Presidium of the USSR Council of Ministers canceled the "special settlement" restriction of Jehovah's Witnesses, though the decree, signed by Anastas Mikoyan, stated that there would be no compensation for confiscated property. However, Jehovah's Witnesses remained the subject of state persecution due to their ideology being classified as anti-Soviet.[88]

On December 8, 2009 the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the ruling of the lower courts which pronounced 34 pieces of Jehovah's Witness literature extremist, including their magazine The Watchtower, in the Russian language, and the book for children, My Book of Bible Stories. Jehovah's Witnesses claim that this ruling affirms a misapplication of the Federal Law on Counteracting Extremist Activity to Jehovah's Witnesses. The ruling upheld the confiscation of property of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog (Rostov Region) in Russia, and might set a precedent for similar cases in other areas of Russia, as well as placing literature of Jehovah's Witnesses on a list of literature unacceptable throughout Russia. The Chairman of the Presiding Committee of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, Vasily Kalin, said: "I am very concerned that this decision will open a new era of opposition against Jehovah's Witnesses, whose right to meet in peace, to access religious literature and to share the Christian hope contained in the Gospels, is more and more limited." Kalin also stated, "When I was young I was sent to Siberia for being one of Jehovah's Witnesses and because my parents were reading The Watchtower, the same journal being unjustly declared 'extremist' in these proceedings."[89]

During the 1930s and 1940s, some US states passed laws that made it illegal for Jehovah's Witnesses to distribute their literature, and children of Jehovah's Witnesses in some states were banned from attending state schools. Mob violence against Jehovah's Witnesses was not uncommon, and some were murdered for their beliefs. Those responsible for these attacks were seldom prosecuted.[need quotation to verify][90]

The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses for their refusal to salute the flag became known as the "Flag-Salute Cases".[91] Their refusal to salute the flag became considered as a test of the liberties for which the flag stands, namely the freedom to worship according to the dictates of one's own conscience. It was found that the United States, by making the flag salute compulsory in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), was impinging upon the individual's right to worship as one chooses — a violation of the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause in the constitution. Justice Frankfurter, speaking in behalf of the 8-to-1 majority view against the Witnesses, stated that the interests of "inculcating patriotism was of sufficient importance to justify a relatively minor infringement on religious belief."[92] The result of the ruling was a wave of persecution. Lillian Gobitas, the mother of the schoolchildren involved in the decision said, "It was like open season on Jehovah's Witnesses."[93]

The American Civil Liberties Union reported that by the end of 1940, "more than 1,500 Witnesses in the United States had been victimized in 335 separate attacks."[94] Such attacks included beatings, being tarred and feathered, hanged, shot, maimed, and even castrated, as well as other acts of violence.[95] As reports of these attacks against Jehovah's Witnesses continued, "several justices changed their minds, and in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Court declared that the state could not impinge on the First Amendment by compelling the observance of rituals."[96]

^"France", 1980 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, page 87-89, "THE ORGANIZATION IS BANNED In mid-October 1939, about six weeks after the beginning of the war, the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was banned in France."

^"France: International Religious Freedom Report 2006", U.S. Department of State, As Retrieved 2009-08-19, [The French] Government has a stated policy of monitoring potentially "dangerous" cult activity through the Inter-ministerial Monitoring Mission against Sectarian Abuses (MIVILUDES). … In January 2005, MIVILUDES published a guide for public servants instructing them how to spot and combat "dangerous" sects. … The Jehovah's Witnesses were mentioned"

^"Highest administrative court in France rules that Jehovah's Witnesses are a religion", News release June 23, 2000, Authorized Site of the Office of Public Information of Jehovah's Witnesses, As Retrieved 2009-08-19

^"France: International Religious Freedom Report 2008", U.S. Department of State, As Retrieved 2009-08-19, "Jehovah's Witnesses awaited a ruling by the ECHR on the admissibility of a case contesting the government's assessment of their donations at a 60 percent tax rate. The government had imposed the high rate relative to other religious groups after ruling the group to be a harmful cult. If the assessed tax, which totaled more than 57 million euros (approximately $77.5 million) as of year's end, were to be paid, it would consume all of the group's buildings and assets in the country."

^"French High Court confirms 60-percent confiscatory tax measure on religious donations", News release October 6, 2004, Authorized Site of the Office of Public Information of Jehovah's Witnesses, As Retrieved 2009-08-19, "France's highest court of appeal, the Cour de cassation, has handed down its decision in a case between the Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah, a not-for-profit religious association used by Jehovah's Witnesses in France, and the national tax department, the Direction des services fiscaux. Following a tax inspection lasting 18 months, the tax department established that Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah, whose sole revenue consists of religious donations by its adherents, was run in a completely benevolent fashion, and that its activities were not commercial or for profit. Nevertheless, the tax department levied a 60-percent tax on the religious donations made over a period of four years, between 1993 and 1996. … This is the first time in their 100-year existence in France that Jehovah's Witnesses have been taxed in this manner. … Furthermore, this tax has not been imposed on any other religious organization in France. The Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah has decided to institute proceedings against this confiscatory taxation before the European Court of Human Rights."

^"France: International Religious Freedom Report 2008", U.S. Department of State, As Retrieved 2009-08-19, "According to representatives for the Jehovah's Witnesses community, there were 65 acts of vandalism against the group in the country through December including Molotov cocktails aimed at Jehovah's Witnesses' property. … According to the leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses community in the country, there were 98 acts against individuals for 2006 and 115 acts in 2007."

^"GEORGIA: INTIMIDATION SABOTAGES TRIAL OF VIOLENT PRIEST" by Felix Corley, Keston News Service, February 7, 2002, Keston Institute, Oxford, UK, as cited by Eurasianet.org, As Retrieved 2009-08-26, "[A lawyer for Jehovah's Witnesses] does not believe judge Chkheidze did enough. "He should have done more to protect the security of participants. Five policemen were present but left the courtroom before the hearing started. We don't know why. Maybe they were instructed to do so." In a statement issued after the trial, the Jehovah's Witnesses reported that about three hundred of Mkalavishvili's supporters, mostly men, armed with metal and wooden crosses, tried to invade the courtroom before the hearing began. "Many entered and occupied areas reserved for attorneys as they rang their religious bell and waved large anti-Jehovah's Witness banners. As the victims' attorneys made their way through the mob to Judge Ioseb Chkheidze's chambers, they overheard security police being ordered away from the scene. The courtroom was left with no security." Attorneys explained to Chkheidze that under these circumstances it was impossible to proceed with the trial as it was too dangerous for the victims or their attorneys to attend."

^T. L. v. Ministry of Internal Affairs, V SA 1969/95, Poland: High Administrative Court, 17 September 1996, As Retrieved 2009-08-26, "On 12 May 1995 during the "status interview" conducted by the officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Office the applicant declared additionally that, among others, she could not return to the country, because since 1989 she had been the Jehovah Witness sic and she feared that she could be arrested for that reason."